Chris Sacca: The Train Has Left The Station On Early Stage Valuations

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Super angel investor Chris Sacca doesn’t like all the new competition pushing up valuations in angel deals and seed rounds these days. “It is a train and it is kind of running away,” he says on a panel this morning at the Wired business conference. “That layer of the market has an abundance of capital.”

Sacca, who funded Photobucket from his credit card and was one of the first to put money into Twitter, is now shying away from early stage deals. “I have definitely refocused Lowercase Capital on later stage deals and my existing portfolio.” Everyone wants to be an angel investor all of a sudden. “It is very hip to be an angel investor now,” he laments. “There used to be a dozen, two dozen guys at these demo days writing checks. Now there are hundreds.” And half of them don’t even read the term sheets! How retail of them.

So are we in a bubble? Quoting Chris Dixon, Sacca contends, “We are not in a bubble, but it is a bad time to be an early stage investor.” But it’s a good time to be a founder, that’s for sure.

Asked about his $1 billion Twitter fund with J.P> Morgan, Sacca blurted: “I am not going to confirm or deny the existence of a billion dollar fund. I cannot really speak about my fund or the fund that doesn’t exist or whatever.”

He did talk about Twitter, however, and the increasing drumbeat of opinion in investing circles that at some point it needs to sell to Google or another acquirer. “Anyone encouraging them to sell wasn’t watching Twitter the other night when Osama Bin Laden was killed.” Start paying attention, folks!

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BioAn accomplished venture investor, private equity principal, company advisor, and entrepreneur, Chris manages a portfolio of over fifty consumer web, mobile, and wireless technology start- ups as well as an array of mature enterprises through his holding company, Lowercase Capital. While primarily known for its investments in seed and early stage technology companies, Lowercase has quietly become one …